Cup 4 - Lori

January 26, 2014

While the list of people I hope to catch up with this year is long, it actually isn't comprised only of teachers I have previously worked with!  It was under somewhat stressful circumstances that I met with not-a-teacher-Lori today.  But thank goodness for friends during hard times!

Lori is a friend I met six summers ago.  My husband, and her whole family, were regular competitors at off-road dirt bike races happening throughout the province.  We would see each other a couple of weekends a month, May through September.  This pattern continued for three seasons, until three years ago, which is when Derek took a break from racing and riding.  (He thought it was a more temporary break, at the time, and still intends to get back to the scene.  I hope he does.)

Mine and Lori's bond was built around our dog, Brier.  Brier was a celebrity in his own right at dirt bike events, known and loved by everybody.  Lori has dogs of her own, but always joked (?) that Brier was her favourite dog ever.  Her affection for him was evident and heart-warming.  He was the centre of many conversations and a constant companion by our sides as we watched and waited for races to be done.  So even though Derek stopped racing, and Lori and I only see tidbits about each others' lives on FaceBook, she was literally the first person I messaged last week when Brier's age seemed to suddenly catch up to him and it appeared we may not have him for much longer.  Stressful times.

Lori drove to our house today, from Pincher Creek(!) to see Brier....and us!  I had been hoping they'd have gotten to see each other again, in the camping environment Brier loves, but today the summer seems a long way off.  How wonderful it was to see Lori's smiling face and to hear about her busy family.  How great it was for Derek to catch up on the goings-on in the racing community he was once so involved.  I'm truly hoping today might have been a spark to ignite getting his bike out from under the tarp in our garage.  How wonderful that Lori went out of her way and made time for us.  After three years!  How amazing it is to have a dog who has so effortlessly touched so many people over the years, and connected us to those people as well.

Brier is lying beside me as I type.  I'm not sure how many days, weeks or months we still have together.  But I'm thankful for how he has deepened the pool of relationships I now have in my life.  Thank you Lori, for being one of the those important people.

And thank you for loving my dog.